Ever wonder what happens to brands that lie dormant for years?

Michael Reich, owner of Brands USA Holdings, just auctioned 170 product and corporate names and found out firsthand. It was a fascinating exercise.

Familiar name brands like Meister Brau, Braniff and Old Nick candy bars all sold, as bidders gathered at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York for the auction.

Collier's, the once-venerable weekly magazine that published the works of Hemingway, Cather, Lewis, Salinger and Vonnegut, shut down in 1957, sold as a trademark for $2,000 to John Elduff, a 20-year-old student (!) from Philadelphia.Continue reading...

Do you remember when having a Commodore computer was something to brag about? Yes? Are you old? Yes. Think about this, today's 25-year-old computer user has probably never even seen a real Commodore computer. But if the brand's new CEO has anything to do with it, that could change soon. Yes, Commodore is back, baby!

Commodore is rising from the ashes like a phoenix – or at least it's trying to. Later this year the brand will release a desktop computer unit enclosed in a keyboard. Commodore's website describes the machine as "...a sleek, anodized aluminum case and a clean, contemporary surface. It’s small, elegant, and unassuming. In fact, it looks so simple it's hard to believe it’s a computer at all." President and CEO Barry Altman told tech blog Engadget that the accompanying advertising campaign will be "something like you've never seen in your life."Continue reading...

Its been said that everything new is old again, and fashion house Yves Saint Laurent has created a new line to prove it.

“New Vintage II” is the second part of a capsule collection featuring leftover scraps from past collections recreated into classic silhouettes. Creative director Stefano Pilati has implemented his venerable designs on fabrics pulled straight from the house's archives, proving that he has a few new tricks up his sleeve.

The first eco-friendly line was sold exclusively at Barneys New York, a store known for doing its part in celebrating green design.Continue reading...

The New York Times declares the newest fashion fad among men to be “the steady infiltration of 19th-century haberdashery into the 21st-century wardrobe.” In other words: tweed. Military coats, vests, slim trousers (and even facial hair) have officially returned to the mainstream for menswear and designers are taking full advantage. Fall runway looks included tailcoats at Ralph Lauren, capes and bowlers at Alexander McQueen and knee breeches at Robert Geller.

We may not know what caused this renewed interest in tweed, and it could crash and burn into a flurry of costumes at next year's Halloween parties. But don't you just love to watch fashion brands in motion?Continue reading...

Now that Robert McCann is officially free from his contract with Merrill Lynch, UBS has announced his formal placement as head of UBS’ wealth management in the America’s. His first order of business was shooting down rumors that he intended to rebrand the fraught financial giant as PaineWebber.

McCann acknowledged that reviving the PaineWebber brand would prove too costly; his faith remains in the value and benefit of UBS’s global brand.  "I never discussed the PaineWebber brand as part of any negotiations… I think the UBS brand is much richer and broader." How ever did that pesky rumor circulate?

Still UBS’ brand remains tarnished. Interbrand’s 2009 Best Global Brands report saw UBS’ Brand Value slide 50%, taking into consideration brand revenue, brand earnings, and a measure of brand strength. Clients have fled from the companies’ wealth management unit following a tax evasion inquiry from the US federal government.Continue reading...

What does a financial institution do when it runs into trouble? Apparently, the simplest solution is to rebrand.

In the US, embattled insurance giant AIG changed the names of various divisions to create distance from the parent company. AIG's property and casualty business, for example, became Chartis. General Motors' GMAC financial unit was re-named Ally Bank, to eliminate the distasteful association with a bankrupt automaker.

Now Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is planning to extricate itself from a mess with the European Commission with a simple name change. The Commission is forcing RBS to dump 312 of its branches in England and Wales. RBS plans to change the name of those branches to Williams & Glyn's, to make them more attractive for sale.Continue reading...